Decent start to the new year.

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Haven't been posting nearly as much. As of the first of the year I took the leap and went to work for myself full time. I picked this time of the years because I know typically in my area it is slower for this type of work. While I have been welding for a long time business management is all new. I figured a slower pace in the beginning might not be the worst thing.  I have had to force myself to be much more thorough when it comes to billing and quoting as a lot more is riding on it. All in all nothing but great experiences. From meeting new customers to getting everything setup legit with the state and appropriate insurances. Anyways enough with the chatter here are a few things that I was able to remember to take pics of. New hand rail that needed to be tied into existing. I didn't do the install just helped on the build. This was some overflow work from another welder who is a friend of mineThis is a column for a jib boom. Again it was overflow for my friend. Not my design. Only rated for 500 lbs 8" beam 1/2" base plate. Twisted my arm and forced me to buy a hougen mag drill to drill the base plate. Don't know how I've lived without one now that I have one.
Reply:Tested it on my trailblazer plus me still on the welder all went well. The boom was rated for 1000lbs but the hoist they are using is only rated for 500 lbs. I didn't use their hoist by the way. Back to work on the barn extension. This is a bull pen. A real one.
Reply:A few weld close ups as someone asked on the headlock build. Nothing fancy just some trigger pullinThese are some bucket pins for a jd 4x4 bucket tractor. Original one with center grease fittings were discontinued. These I built pretty much for fun only charged for material. As the guy whom I made them for had given me about 100 hrs worth of work I wanted to toss him a bone. A friend of mine owns a machine shop and did the machine work. The customer asked that I put something on them that he could grab with a wrench to index the pin and would also serve as something to hit with a hammer without hurting the zerk fitting.
Reply:This is type of work I typically don't do but was willing to tackle. I spent the previous 15 years working full time as a mechanic. I finished my dealership career as shop foreman than decided to go work for a private shop for the last 3 years. I've made a lot of good connections and now it's brought me back to a dealership for different type of work. A friend of mine is service manager at this dealership and they needed to install a exhaust fan in their undercoat booth as well as raise the protective curtain about 4 feet. I built the brackets and was given the opportunity to do the whole job. All in all I was very happy with the turn out. More importantly the owner was very happy. Should have got a better pic of the bracket. Welds looked nice and I made sure to run a scotchbrite over the soot marks the other stains got wiped off with acetone also.Last edited by KD Welding; 02-11-2015 at 07:16 PM.
Reply:Nice work. Starting out can be scary for sure. I did it once and think about doing it again all the time, but a steady paycheck is hard to give up for the unknown. Good luck with you business.Yeah, I know, but it'll be ok!Lincoln Square wave 255Miller Vintage mig30a spoolgunThermal Dynamics Pacmaster 100xl plasmaSmith mc torchEllis 1600 band saw
Reply:Looks great, wish I could say I've gotten that much done this year! Good luck with your business sounds like you have a good plan of attack, keep at it!ESAB Powercut 1600/ Hypertherm 30XP + 45XP/ Lincoln Powermig 255/ Jet Band SawCheck out my plasma cutter reviews also!Current Project: 175 Gallon Reverse Flow BBQ Smoker!